Methods and systems for remotely determining levels of healthcare interventions

Abstract

The present subject matter relates to methods and systems utilizing wearable sensor technology to determine when a patient's health may be degrading to trigger progressively higher levels of care and involvement, from “free” hands and eyes to skilled clinicians, in order to keep patients in the lowest cost setting of care, the home, for as long as possible.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system for remotely determining levels of healthcare interventions for a patient, comprising:
 a wearable sensor for sensing information of the patient and determining activity information of the patient based on the sensed information and associated location of the patient; and 
 a computerized system in electronic communication with the wearable sensor, the computerized system including one or more computers, each computer including a non-transitory memory storing instructions for execution by a processor, the computerized system configured to:
 receive the activity information from the wearable sensor, 
 compare the received activity information to baseline activity information of the patient, 
 detect a variation from the baseline activity information based on the comparison, 
 determine a statistical significance of the detected variation relative to the baseline activity information, 
 select an intervention level among plural hierarchical intervention levels based on the statistical significance of the detected variation and a previous disease state progression of the patient automatically determined by the computerized system, at least one of a lower statistical significance or a lower disease state progression associated with a lower intervention level, and at least one of a higher statistical significance or a higher disease state progression associated with a higher intervention level, the intervention level being selected from one of a patient contact level of intervention, a resident caregiver contact level of intervention, a non-resident contact level of intervention and a clinical contact level of intervention, 
 identify, based on the selected intervention level, an intervention contact device of an intervention contact associated with the intervention level, 
 select one or more questions for one or more requests for information related to at least one of a state and a behavior of the patient associated with a disease state, based on the selected intervention level, the detected variation and a current disease state of the patient, 
 send the one or more requests for information to the intervention contact device, 
 automatically update the disease state progression of the patient based on evaluation of the received activity information from the wearable sensor and a response or a non-response from the intervention contact device to the one or more requests, and 
 determine whether to repeat the selecting, identifying, selecting and sending for a different intervention level among the plural hierarchical intervention levels, based on the updated progression of the disease state. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the non-resident contact level includes at least one of a non-resident family member and a friend. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more requests for information includes at least one of an interrogatory component and/or an observation component. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 3 , wherein the computerized system receives the response or the non-response and determines whether to escalate the intervention level to a higher intervention level, to maintain a status quo, or to de-escalate the intervention level to a lower intervention level. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the computerized system, based upon the received activity information, automatically initiates a patient task or a test, and evaluates patient performance of the patient task or the test in real-time. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the previous disease state progression is based on any previously received activity information, any previously detected variation from the baseline activity and any previously received response from among the plural hierarchical intervention levels. 
     
     
       7. A method of remotely determining levels of healthcare interventions for a patient, comprising the steps of:
 sensing, by a wearable sensor, information of the patient; 
 determining, by the wearable sensor, activity information of the patient based on the sensed information and associated location of the patient; 
 receive, by a computerized system, the activity information from the wearable sensor via electronic communication with the wearable sensor, the computerized system including one or more computers, each computer including a non-transitory memory storing instructions for execution by a processor; 
 compare, by the computerized system, the received activity information to baseline activity information of the patient; 
 detect, by the computerized system, a variation from the baseline activity information based on the comparison; 
 determine a statistical significance of the detected variation relative to the baseline activity information; 
 select, by the computerized system, an intervention level among plural hierarchical intervention levels based on the statistical significance of the detected variation and a previous disease state progression of the patient automatically determined by the computerized system, at least one of a lower statistical significance or a lower disease state progression associated with a lower intervention level, and at least one of a higher statistical significance or a higher disease state progression associated with a higher intervention level, the intervention level being selected from one of a patient contact level of intervention, a resident caregiver contact level of intervention, a non-resident contact level of intervention and a clinical contact level of intervention; 
 identify, by the computerized system, based on the selected intervention level, an intervention contact device of an intervention contact associated with the intervention level; 
 select, by the computerized system, one or more questions for one or more requests for information related to at least one of a state and a behavior of the patient associated with a disease state, based on the selected intervention level, the detected variation and a current disease state of the patient; 
 send, by the computerized system, the one or more requests for information to the intervention contact device; 
 automatically update, by the computerized system, the disease state progression of the patient based on evaluation of the received activity information from the wearable sensor and a response or a non-response from the intervention contact device to the one or more requests; and 
 determine, by the computerized system, whether to repeat the selecting, 
 identifying, selecting and sending steps for a different intervention level among the plural hierarchical intervention levels, based on the updated progression of the disease state. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the non-resident contact level includes at least one of a non-resident family member and a friend. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the one or more requests for information includes at least one of an interrogatory component and/or an observation component. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , further comprising the step of determining, by the computerized system, whether to escalate the intervention level to a higher intervention level, to maintain a status quo, or to de-escalate the intervention level to a lower intervention level based upon the response or the non-response. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising the steps of automatically initiating, by the computerized system, a patient task or a test based upon the received activity information, and evaluating patient performance of the patient task or the test in real-time. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the previous disease state progression is based on any previously received activity information, any previously detected variation from the baseline activity and any previously received response from among the plural hierarchical intervention levels.